One of the thousands of reasons we love heavy music is simply this: it grabs us by the torso and powers us through life’s bullshit with its sheer energy and surging might. No matter our preferences it makes us feel great, and there will always be a plethora of bands who will provide us with this feeling, this outlet. Sadly, there are also a large number of bands whose bite does not live up to its bark and, as of February 2017, Grand Massive cosy up to bands within this category; their first full length, III, stands out as a shining example of unoriginal music failing to hit almost every mark.

Maybe it’s the muddied and noisy production, the oft lousy mixing or the lack of any real identity but whatever it is, Germany’s Grand Massive are unable to live up to their moniker let alone deliver punches with enough weight behind them to bruise the flesh. Falling somewhere between the likes of countrymen Mustasch, Down, and a horde of modern commercial metal bands, III may be a slight step up from 2015’s 2 EP and may throw said punches here and there but they are without aim and direction you cannot ride an album on a bunch of riffs and pad out the silence with noise, clunky drumming and flat vocals. Opener ‚Deliver Me‘ attempts to pass itself off as a Slipknot anthem (and embarrassingly so) ; follow up ‚Power of Gods‘ makes the gods look weak with their uninspired grooves and hollow padding, this being said it does have a couple of good riffs here and there. ‚The Hunter‘ starts out on a monstrous early Mastodon style hook but, like many of the tracks before it, slowly devolves from that point on and ultimately feels rushed.

It isn’t all bad though: ‚Taurus‘ is a slow stoner number where all the components fit neatly together perhaps the only time it happens on the album and though album closer ‚Souleaters‘ may be horrendously clich, it rides on one wicked heavy crunching riff and several neat drum patterns, almost sounding like a bearded doom band from across the pond. These two songs alone prove that Grand Massive can actually write music and carry it forward with bravado. But after being together for almost a decade now it almost seems like too little too late to get the ball rolling. There is no real thought behind the music, making it seem tired and uninspired, and singer Alex Andronikos seemingly cannot elevate his vocals to the level the music should be demanding.

All in all, III is a major disappointment. Despite having a small number of decent songs it is not enough to carry the other songs that are either flat out bad or let the listener down after promising to hit hard right between the eyes. Grand Massive obviously love riffs as much as anyone this album is littered with them and know how to write them, but that is where the love ends because everything else is just filler material. This is a rushed and messy album from start to finish and about as memorable as it is original. A shame when you realise they once received rave reviews from the likes of Rock Hard and Metal Hammer